The queen had always shown regard for the care of her wounded soldiers, and took personal interest in the hospital arrangements at home. In April she visited St. Mary's Hospital at Chatham, where four hundred invalids were drawn up in the barrack square to receive her. After passing through the suffering numbers, cheering them with kind smiles and comforting words, the queen and prince entered the hospital, where those who were not well enough to be in the open air were assembled. Some of the poor fellows were frightfully crippled and disfigured; but all felt flattered by their sovereign's interest in them, and many displayed, with honest pride, the medals and other marks of honor that they had won on the battlefield. Two days later her majesty visited Aldershot, where a camp had been established. On a richly caparisoned chestnut horse she rode forward to inspect the troops. They were drawn up in two lines, fourteen thousand in number, and reached out a mile and a half in length. Bayonets flashed in the sunlight as the men presented arms, and the bands of the different regiments burst forth in strains of welcome as their sovereign advanced. Having reached an elevated piece of ground, her majesty, surrounded by a brilliant suite, witnessed the movements of the soldiers as they marched past her in a line. A grand field-day followed, when the queen appeared again on horseback, wearing the uniform of a field-marshal with the star and ribbon of the Garter, and a dark blue riding-skin. The sight was more splendid than before; the troops had mustered eighteen thousand strong this time, and their manoeuvres under the command of General Knollys excited great admiration.
During the same month there was a review of the fleet at Spithead. The royal yacht steamed out of the harbor followed by private vessels, all decked with flags and crowded with spectators, and, as they passed through the double line of men-of-war, a royal salute was fired; and this, added to the cheering of the men, produced a most exciting scene. The fleet performed various evolutions afterwards, and then had a mimic battle, which concluded the proceedings. Several more reviews, both of the navy and army, took place this year, and her majesty laid the corner-stone of a large military hospital which she had ordered to be built near Nettey. "It is to bear my name," she wrote, "and is to be one of the finest in Europe. Loving the brave army as I do, and having seen so many of my poor sick and wounded soldiers, I shall watch over the work with maternal anxiety."
An accident to the princess royal, in June, was the cause of a great deal of anxiety to the queen. The young lady was melting sealing-wax by a candle, to seal a letter, when her sleeve caught fire and her right arm was severely burned from the elbow to the shoulder. Had assistance not been near, the princess might have been burned to death; but two ladies who were in the room acted with praiseworthy presence of mind, and extinguished the flame with a hearth-rug. In a few weeks the wounds were entirely healed. In the autumn the court retired to Balmoral, and one of the most distinguished visitors presented to the queen and prince was Miss Florence Nightingale. The prince wrote of her: "She put before us all the defects of our present military hospital system, and the reforms that are needed. We are much pleased with her; she is extremely modest." A fortnight later she became the queen's guest, and Lord Panmure, the minister of war, was invited to meet her in order that she might lay before him an account of all she had seen at the Crimea, and her opinions as to the reforms that ought to be made. Miss Nightingale was treated with all the honors due so perfect a woman and so great a philanthropist.
A.D. 1857. When parliament opened in February, the queen gave an account in her speech of how an insult had been offered to the British flag by the Chinese, at Canton, which had rendered it necessary for redress to be demanded by force of arms. The facts were these: A Chinese-built vessel, called "The Arrow," sailing under a British flag, had been boarded by a Chinese war-junk, and the crew carried off as pirates. Sir John Bowring, the English governor at Hong-Kong, had demanded satisfaction, which Yeh, the Chinese commissioner, had refused. Thereupon the English fleet, under Admiral Michael Seymour, was sent to enforce reparation as well as free admission of foreigners to the city of Canton. Had Sir John Bowring not been so determined that the port of Canton should, according to a former treaty, remain open to trade, the matter might have been settled without a fight; but, as it was, the Chinese were forced into a war which cost them dear.
In a few words the cause of the Chinese war is told; but it would require thousands to recount the debate which arose in parliament as to the action of the government, which Lord Derby had challenged in one house, and Mr. Cobden in the other. The question was, whether or no the war was to be continued, whether or no Lord Palmerston was to resign? "Let the noble lord, who complains that he is the victim of a conspiracy, not only complain to the country,—let him appeal to it!" said Mr. Disraeli at the close of a two nights' debate. The noble lord did appeal to the country. He announced his policy to be, "to maintain the rights, to defend the lives and properties of British subjects, to improve our relations with China, and in the selection and arrangement of the means for the accomplishment of those objects, to perform the duty which they owed to the country." The elections which took place soon after showed a clear gain to the ministry, and a glorious victory for Lord Palmerston.
Two visitors must be mentioned, the one an American, the other a Frenchman, who went to England about this time on important missions. The American was Mr. Cyrus W. Field, who astonished the leading merchants and scientific men, by announcing a plan which he had for laying a telegraph line beneath the Atlantic to connect Europe and the United States. The Frenchman was M. de Lesseps, who explained his project for cutting a canal across the Isthmus of Suez. Both met with opposition, and both plans were deemed impossible; but, as we know, both have succeeded.
The Archduke Maximilian, brother to the Emperor of Austria, visited the court in June. He was at that time engaged to the Princess Charlotte of Belgium,—the woman afterwards known to all the world as "Poor Carlotta." It was six years after this visit to London that the Archduke Maximilian became Emperor of Mexico, where, by a turn of the revolutionary wheel, he was ordered to be shot by President Juarez, in 1867. Just before his sentence was carried into execution, Maximilian took out his watch, and, pressing a spring which concealed a portrait of his wife, he kissed it, and gave it to a priest, saying: "Carry this souvenir to Europe,—to my dear wife; and, if she be ever able to understand you, say that my eyes closed with the impression of her image, which I shall carry with me above. Poor Carlotta!" He had reason to believe that his message never would be comprehended by his wife, because, as all her bright hopes were blasted in Mexico, her mind succumbed. When her husband was taken prisoner, she had gone to France, and then to Rome to plead for help. She was refused, and insanity was the result.
One of the most important movements this year was towards the establishment of schools for the poorer classes. Prince Albert took a lively interest in this matter; for it had astonished and pained him to find that more than half of the children between the ages of three and fifteen, in England and Wales, could neither read nor write, and the remainder had only two years of school life. He made a speech urging the necessity of compulsory education, and declared that parents must be made to see that to secure education for their children was "not only their most sacred duty, but also their highest privilege."
The title of Prince Consort was conferred by the queen on her husband this year; she also distributed "the Victoria Cross," for the first time. This ceremony took place at Hyde Park, and was intended as a reward for bravery in the army and navy. These decorations had been manufactured by the queen's order, and had inscribed on one side, "For Valor." They were given only to men who had served in the presence of the enemy, and had performed some signal act of bravery or devotion to their country. The list of such names had been made out with great care, and her majesty resolved to establish the order by decorating the heroes with her own hand. More than a hundred thousand people assembled to witness the ceremony, and a vast semi-circle of seats had been erected to hold about twelve thousand. Four thousand soldiers were drawn up in a line, and between these and the royal pavilion were the sixty-two brave fellows who were to be decorated.
At ten o'clock her majesty rode into the park mounted on a gray horse, and dressed in a scarlet jacket, with a black skirt. She was accompanied by the prince, Prince Frederick William of Prussia, and a brilliant suite. The heroes were brought forward one by one, and her majesty pinned the cross to the breast of each without leaving her seat in the saddle. The prince saluted each man with profound respect as he withdrew. It was a splendid spectacle, and the enthusiasm of the multitude was very great.